Poor black levels on 3G iPhone?

My black 16GB 3G iPhone has horrible black levels. Watching videos makes for an awful experience in dark scenes, in which there is black crush and details are lost. Note that this isn't the yellow color issue that's been mentioned already.

Anyone else with this problem?

I plan on exchanging my iPhone once it's in stock again, because of the poor black levels and 2 dead pixels. I also just found a blob of dust behind the screen that shows up as as a 1mm dark line on a white screen.

My black 16GB 3G iPhone has horrible black levels. Watching videos makes for an awful experience in dark scenes, in which there is black crush and details are lost. Note that this isn't the yellow color issue that's been mentioned already.

Anyone else with this problem?

I plan on exchanging my iPhone once it's in stock again, because of the poor black levels and 2 dead pixels. I also just found a blob of dust behind the screen that shows up as as a 1mm dark line on a white screen.

Here are some sample pics. 3G phone on the bottom, old iPhone on top.

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what are these pics from? Im tryin to test my iphone with something other than appleserverup.com.

I wish we could test this with something we all have access to, maybe a youtube or something. It would be interesting.
If you find anything that shows the same as the above pics but something we can all find - a photo, youtube with listing the exact time, etc. Please post.

Could you pause your videos at those stills, hide the controls, then use the screenshot function to give us the same stills to test on our phones?

Even if we don't have both iPhones, it will be easy to see the black crush compared to what we see of the photo on our PC monitors (unless someone has a real bad setup)

Also, what was the brightness level you are you using? And were they the same between phones (appears to be)

I noticed at default less than half brightness, plenty of detail was lost in the video of Modest Mouse music vid: Dashboard. Increasing brightness to max, I could see more detail, but there still may be some crushed blacks, won't know until I check with it on my computer later.

I don't think this is a backlighting issues with how deep the black is, but the black crush, where the details are lost in dark areas. These screens show a huge loss of detail over the original with the same video.

I replaced the 3G iPhone shown above, and the second one had even worse black levels. All the images above looked almost completely like a negative, it was awful. The Jay Z picture was completely negative like the iPod touch with the exact same problem. I was going to take pics of it, but then I discovered the accelerometer was broken (the orientation would always be upside down) and got a third iPhone. This one, FINALLY, has no negative black issue, isn't so yellow though it is slightly like all 3G iPhones, and looks similar to the old iPhone pics posted above except with more saturated reds and greens for a supposedly more realistic look.

Here are some screen grabs to test on your own iPhone. Just save them and transfer them to your iPod via iTunes. The images will be degraded somewhat due to iTunes' "optimizing" them for the iPhone, but should be close enough to test black levels.

Essentially, all the pics look nearly the same on my old iPhone, 3G iPhone, and MacBook Pro. The colors vary a bit, but the black levels and amount of details you can see in the black areas are close. I will post comparison pics between the old and new iPhone later tonight.

I know. That's why there are camera pictures in the first post and why I said I will post pics again later on today. I posted screen shots because someone asked above for them so they can test on their own iPhone.

Staff Member

I put the screenshots onto my 3G iPhone and they look perfect, including seeing all the detail in the photo frame. If they look anything except perfect, I'd take your phone back because there's clearly something wrong with it...

I put the screenshots onto my 3G iPhone and they look perfect, including seeing all the detail in the photo frame. If they look anything except perfect, I'd take your phone back because there's clearly something wrong with it...

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IF ur just copying the previous pics to your iphone and viewing them, they are going to look just as good as they do on here. Its just an image. My iphone has bad negative black issues and those pics look prefect but my screen isnt.

Staff Member

IF ur just copying the previous pics to your iphone and viewing them, they are going to look just as good as they do on here. Its just an image. My iphone has bad negative black issues and those pics look prefect but my screen isnt.

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I don't understand your logic. Sure, it's just a picture, but what is a movie except a series of pictures?

I don't understand your logic. Sure, it's just a picture, but what is a movie except a series of pictures?

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You just dont understand, I know this because my iphone has bad negative black issue which ive confirmed thru the appleservedup.com site. But, viewing the pics above show the pics just how they are on here which is perfect.

The pictures in this thread don't look perfect. There are clearly differences in them. The bottom pictures are the one with poor black levels and my iPhone 3G has that too. I guess the only way to fix it is to get a new phone.

The pictures in this thread don't look perfect. There are clearly differences in them. The bottom pictures are the one with poor black levels and my iPhone 3G has that too. I guess the only way to fix it is to get a new phone.

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Yeh im gettin mine replaced but ima wait a few weeks and hope that they get better.

When you went to get yours replaced, did the ATT, or Apple, people look at you funny, like what the heck are you talking about? Even if they understand, I could easily believe they would say it's normal, or within quality specs.

Is there any official docs on previous defects with the screen from the first gen iPhone and iTouch to confirm this is a problem and not just normal?

I just sent the screenshots to an e-mail on my iphone to test them out.

I know they'll look a lot different than your camera photos, but it should be clear of the black crush is there in the same areas. I've also restored my phone to the newer firmware.

When you went to get yours replaced, did the ATT, or Apple, people look at you funny, like what the heck are you talking about? Even if they understand, I could easily believe they would say it's normal, or within quality specs.

Is there any official docs on previous defects with the screen from the first gen iPhone and iTouch to confirm this is a problem and not just normal?

I just sent the screenshots to an e-mail on my iphone to test them out.

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My last iphone had negative black also. Good thing my vibrate/ringer switch was broken and i didnt have to explain to them that the screen sucks. This one is going to be hard to replace. Its pretty much perfect besides the negative black issue which is really bad on this one. ANy suggestions? Is the negative black screen a rreturnable issue just in itself?

You just dont understand, I know this because my iphone has bad negative black issue which ive confirmed thru the appleservedup.com site. But, viewing the pics above show the pics just how they are on here which is perfect.

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Hmmm, logically I don't understand why it would be different. Maybe viewing pics versus viewing Safari uses different color profiles or settings? What if you view the pictures by looking at them posted in this thread using Safari on your iPhone?

Hmmm, logically I don't understand why it would be different. Maybe viewing pics versus viewing Safari uses different color profiles or settings? What if you view the pictures by looking at them posted in this thread using Safari on your iPhone?

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I really dont know why. But i know my screen is bad. Mine failed all the tests on appleservedup.com. The first box is almost just as black as the background, the jayz album cover doesnt have the gray aura around him, its more blackish.

The whole point of the stills is to test the iPhone display, not the program it uses. I'm on a CRT at work, so they are sure going to look a lot different on my iPhone, no matter in the photo app or safari. At full brightness the blacks are going to look gray and light, while on my CRT, they will look deep. Though, the test is to see if the iPhone display loses detail in the dark areas.

Testing the photo with the guy holding a shotgun. My 3G looks pretty close to the original iPhone in the camera photo on the top of this thread. Only slightly more red. An easy spot in this photo for comparing detail is to look at the bottom left corner where there is a wooden floor.

The original poster's photos, the 3G iPhone hardly or doesn't show that floor, while his original iPhone does. On my 3G iPhone, I can see it as clearly as the original iPhone. Some subtle details are hard to see, possilbly due to being in a fluorescent light room, and the poster's camera shots probably revealed more from it's exposure.

Hard to tell how much negative I'm seeing in my lighting conditions right now.

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